Quinn’s Birth – Some discomfort during long car ride to hospital.

Just wanted to share the Hypnobirth of my little girl, Quinn Marie, who was born April 6 :) BOP: It was not entirely pain-free, but I would still consider this experience a success, as I was able to go intervention and pain-med free and had a quick birth for a first child.

I had lots of BH waves throughout my third trimester and was always wondering when they might get closer together and become actual birthing waves. At 38 weeks exactly, they went from 10 min apart in the morning to 6 min apart in the afternoon and 4 min apart in the evening, but never got more intense or turned into anything. At 39 weeks, I was told at my appointment that the baby was really low and in great birthing position, but I was hesitant to get my hopes up. I expected to go late because this was my first baby and because my mom was about a week late with me.

At 39 weeks and 4 days, I was at work (to my coworkers’ chagrin, who kept looking at me like I was a ticking time bomb) and felt crampy all day. By the end of the day, I was feeling it in my lower back as well. After so many weeks of BH waves, I didn’t take it too seriously. I went for a walk with my husband after work just like we had done the previous two days. After the walk, I felt the waves more strongly, though they weren’t painful or uncomfortable. I did go ahead and do 2 Hypnobabies tracks that night (Deepening and Easy First Stage), and something also told me to set up my short term disability benefits, too! The waves continued but I was able to sleep comfortably all night.

The next morning (39 weeks and 5 days) I awoke an hour early because of birds chirping outside the window. The waves were still present, and I got on my hands and knees and wiggled my rear in the air, which was really comfortable. At that point, I started thinking that something might be up. I was discussing with my husband that we should possibly go into work early, pick up our laptops, and work from home when I heard a POP! at 7am. My water had broken!

I called the on-call midwife at the birth center. She said that because this was my first child, I should probably go through several hours of active birth waves (3-4 min apart) before coming in because they wouldn’t admit me until 4-5cm. She suggested I have breakfast, take a shower, and relax as much as possible. I told her that my waves were already about 3 min apart but I don’t think she took it too seriously.

My husband got me breakfast and water and I used my hypnobabies tracks. The waves got much stronger after my water broke, but I was still just fine. I watched some comedy tracks on Youtube (Eddie Izzard) to stay relaxed. After about an hour or so, I needed to lie down. My husband squeezed my ankle during waves and timed them on his ipod. The waves were still 3 minutes apart consistently.

At about 9, my regular midwife called and asked how things were going. I told her that I had been having waves 3 minutes apart for several hours now. She sounded surprised and said “this isn’t usually how it goes [for a first timer]!” and suggested I leave in half an hour for the birth center. Well, by the time 9:30 rolled around, I was in transition. I was shaking uncontrollably and I couldn’t sit down to use the toilet because the baby was really low. This is where the BOP should be used before proceeding.

The car ride was pretty difficult, being so far along and not being able to get into a comfortable position. I tried to stay relaxed and use hypnosis, but it was just too much. The trip was 45 minutes and we kept getting stuck behind cars/big trucks, which was incredibly frustrating! As we got to the birth center, I was thinking, “If I’m only 3cm, I’m going to have to do a hospital transfer for some relief.”

Well, it turns out I was already 10cm and ready to push. They had me move back and forth from the bed to a birthing stool to help the baby down. I resisted pushing for some reason…I think because I felt unprepared and scared. I also didn’t feel the natural urge to push for quite awhile. Ultimately it took 2 hours to push our baby out because of my resistance, and I wish I had prepared myself better for this stage of labor. I had a 2nd degree tear. Anyways, we found out we had a little girl, and things were great :) I did need a pitocin shot to help with my bleeding, which I was okay with. Baby girl Quinn was born at 12:23, about 5.5 hours after my water broke, and was 8lb1oz and 20.5″ long. She took to nursing immediately and had APGARs of 8/9.

I feel that Hypnobabies allowed me to have a very calm and confident pregnancy, defend myself against negative people and horror stories, and have a fast labor for a first timer. Next time around, I’m going to listen to myself to determine when to leave for the birth locale (I think I would have been much better off NOT in the car during transition) and practice relaxation for the pushing stage ahead of time (though now I know what to expect!)